Frequently asked questions

Most Asked Question

Does BitCap act as a custodian for mining rewards?

No. Our responsibilities are to construct, host, maintain, and monitor your hardware. BitCap NEVER holds your funds at any point in time. All mining rewards are sent directly to the digital wallet you provide or to a smart contract which is responsible for converting the blockchain reward payouts to your preferred one.

Top questions

Why can’t I just build and host my own miner?

You can! However, our team has been profitably mining cryptocurrencies for the past four years. We’ve taken best practices accumulated throughout that time and present them in an end-to-end concierge mining customer experience for you. We are working to ensure our mining clients expend a minimal effort in order to contribute to the health of blockchains.

Would it be easier to mine myself?

Mining takes specialized knowledge and the learning curve is steep; there are constantly faster miners being developed, new software controllers to learn and utilize, custom settings to manipulate to be more efficient, constant firmwares to install, all predicated on myriad hardware combinations you are supporting, new blockchains being developed and released each with different properties to stay aware of, miners to monitor and keep connected online, cleaned, etc.. Mining is not a set-and-forget activity. Until now!

How can I pay BitCap for mining management service fees?

We provide two options to pay your mining contract management fees. You can either pay all of the mining management fees up front annually or per month. However, it is important to note that BitCap only accepts Bitcoin and Ethereum for management service fees if you are paying monthly. So unless a client paid for his or her rig together upfront with their miner purchase (where do accept ACH and wire transfers), we only accept Bitcoin and Ethereum for our management service fee.

Can I choose what blockchain my mining rigs will mine?

Yes, if we support it. We do stress to leave the coin to mine up to us, but we will allow clients to whatever they wish so long as our software supports it. More importantly, we do allow you to elect your payout currencies, so BitCap will set your rigs to mine the most profitable blockchain for your hardware and auto-convert your earnings into the blockchain tech you're most interested in collecting.

Can I choose in what blockchain I am paid?

Yes. BitCap searches the most profitable coin to mine, and we support payout in any one of shapeshift.io’s supported currencies. A list can be found here.

Does BitCap accept Credit Cards?

No! Thankfully! The world of blockchain technology allows us to of bypass many of the legacy financial systems. Doing so results in lower service management fees for you. However, because we understand there are exceptions that need to be made and not everyone is ready to abandon the legacy systems, for the time being, BitCap will accept ACH payments, checks but most importantly we support cryptocurrencies.

Why don’t I just buy ETHER?

You are more than welcome to do so. However, diversification is important. Mining is unique in that miners can participate in future projects, miners’ machines are actively contributing to the security and therefore success of the target network, and your machine retains its value over time. Ethereum is an interesting project, but it is just the latest of a growing list of blockchains that have been very good to miners.

Critical questions

What if I accidentally lose the private keys to the where you send my digital wallet?

Contact the wallet creator to see if there are any steps you can take to recover your lost wallet. However, let this serve as a warning; in the world of cryptocurrencies, you, and you alone are in control of your wallet. It is up to you to ensure you do not lose your mining rewards or access to your mining rewards. Again, BitCap NEVER holds your funds nor management of your elected wallet so we are unable to restore any missing or lost accounts.

Am I responsible for paying taxes on my mining proceeds?

Yes! BitCap is working to provide our clients a ledger of all mining rewards received throughout the life of any mining rigs under their contract making reporting your income and capital gains to the IRS incredibly easy. Additionally, we maintain a record of the USD valuation of those rewards.

What happens when a blockchain is no longer mineable (i.e: Ethereum)?

The answer to this is two-fold. First, it is important to note that BitCap is of the opinion that successful chains tend to have a low threshold for accessibility. When people with general purpose hardware such as GPU’s can meaningfully participate, the user base can more naturally grow. A There is no better way to create a large currency user base than to allow people with everyday hardware to participate. Blockchains that are relegated to ASIC hardware (specialized computers that can only perform one task), or are limited to Proof-of-Stake (or interest based) security mechanisms have a much more difficult climb towards adoption because there is no effective way to spread the userbase. GPU’s will always have a place in cryptocurrencies. The ending of Ethereum’s mining phase marks the end of a 3-year distribution phase, and BitCap will simply look for the next project to mine. There are already a handful of projects and protocols with a lot of promise in the space slated for a 2018 release date. Second, GPU’s can mine a whole range of blockchains, unlike ASIC’s. So you can be rest assured there will be something to mine for years to come.

Is my hardware under warranty?

While we do offer a full service warranty with your builds, each part have limited service warranties by that component's manufacturer. In the event of any part fails, as part of your mining agreement, BitCap will contact your product's manufacturer and initiate a service replacement request. This timeline is predicated on the manufacturers time for replacement of the part. BitCap does offer an extended Mining Protection plan to replace any failed part with a similar one until your warrantied parts are repaired. Ask your mining manager about it.

Does BitCap offer insurance?

Yes. BitCap insures all of the hardware under its roof so that hardware is covered if there is ever a catastrophic event.

The Mining ProtectionPlan extends your parts manufacture's coverage to ensure your rigs mining constantly. For a monthly nominal fee of $25/rig/month, Bitcap will cover the downtime on your rig due to a malfunctioning part so long as that part is under manufacturer’s warranty. We will ship that part to be fixed, replace that part instantly while its away being repaired, and ensure your rig sees little downtime.